Scotland’s proposed ‘Freedom Day’ will be going ahead, first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced today.
The First Minister also suggested that 16 and 17 year olds in the UK may soon start to receive doses of the Covid-19 vaccination.
Most legal coronavirus restrictions in the country are to be lifted on 9 August, next Monday.
Legal requirements for social distancing and limits on the size of social gatherings and access to venues will be removed, but, unlike England, indoor mask-wearing will still be necessary and will be legally mandated “for some time to come,” the first minister said.
Workers in Scotland will still be advised to work from home wherever possible, she said.
Ms Sturgeon did not, however, rule out the potential for restrictions to be reimposed.
“We all hope - I know I certainly do - that the restrictions we lift next Monday will never again have to be re-imposed. But no-one can guarantee that,” she told MSPs.
A health commentator, meanwhile, has said England could be “over the edge” of the third wave of Covid-19 infections.
Jamie Jenkins, former head of health statistics at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), told LBC cases in England and Wales have been falling since 19 July and “we might start being over the hill now” when it comes to deaths.
“We probably are over the edge of the wave at the moment,” he said, but added: “Let’s have a bit of caution as we go into the autumn period.”
